Enright Wins Inaugural Key West Match Race Invitational
1/24/2009

Runner-up from Round Robin‚ comes on strong in final day's racing to win Finals 2-0

Key West‚ FL - In the first event organized by the Chicago Match Racing Center‚ Charlie Enright and his team of Ryan Brown‚ Sarah Callahan‚ Peter Henderson‚ and John Loe have won the inaugural Key West Match Race Invitational. Enright‚ from Bristol‚ RI‚ earned his place in the first-to-two point Finals by finishing Stage 1 as runner-up on a score of 10-5 to Mike Buckley's score of 11-4‚ and then went on to win 2-0.

"This was my first match race event‚ so we got off to a slow start yesterday‚" said a modest Enright‚ "but we got on a roll today‚ so this feels great." Indeed‚ Enright and team won only 5 of their 9 matches in yesterday's triple round robin‚ but in the remaining two round robins today they managed to win all but their first match against Buckley.

Principal Race Officer Ken Legler and his race management team had ideal match race conditions to work with for the two-day event‚ with 8-12 knot north-easterlies yesterday and 6-10 knot easterlies today. Courses were set just west of Sunset Key‚ with a strong cross-course ebb current making laylines a challenge for the four competing teams. More than once the signal boat's anchor line got hooked on keels and rudders‚ as did weather marks and leeward gates. Nonetheless‚ 15 flights were completed in the quintuple round robin Stage 1‚ giving all concerned plenty of racing.

"This was a fantastic start for our new organization‚" said Don Wilson‚ owner of the third-placed Convexity and Founder of the Chicago Match Race Center. "We've proven now that we can bring together a great group of competitors‚ race managers‚ and umpires and have some competitive match race sailing. We look forward to later this Spring when we can put this to the test once again back home in Chicago."

Sponsors of the 2009 Key West Match Race Invitational include Seahorse Magazine and Sail22.

Photos from Ed Furry of Sail22 can also be found at www.flickr.com/photos/sail22/3223766869/in/set-72157612914422699